Lords of the hills, cheese and wine

For the last 10 days Rich and I have been driving around the north of the south island, and eating cheddar cheese and drinking Sauvignon Blanc till we burst and it's been bloody lovely. We had preconceptions of NZ from the people we'd spoken to in Asia and from things I'd read that the south of the south island would be the most beautiful part, but everywhere we have been, literally every corner we've turned in the car, we've seen the most sumptuous scenery. From moorlands to mountains, to beautiful coastlines to parts which look like the 'Shire' from LOTR. You can not go wrong it seems, in the south island. Every journey in the car is like driving through the very best of British countryside but heightened 20 fold. The roads are so quiet. Considering it's the high season here, I can't believe how many tourist you see - not many. Its so unspoilt and I can see why the Lord Of The Rings was filmed here.

Arthur's Pass, halfway to the west coast

We drove from Christchurh across land to the west coast to a place called Punakaiki, which is famous for it's 'blow holes' which are where at high tide, the water is pushed up at great speed through the 'pancake' rock formations. The coast line is very eerie and dramatic, and reminds us of the west coast of Ireland, except here you could see seals bathing on the rocks and the beaches are even quieter, ie, no one on them! Rich and I went for a full 7 hour trek inland there, walking through the creeks, woodland and valleys. On the walk we were followed by a fantail bird and some other little bird that was trying to eat my cigarette ash! The fantail was fluttering in front of us as we were walking through the wood trying to get our attention and whenever we stopped it came and sat with us! The Kiwi's aren't as friendly or as pretty as the little fantails. Oh and we saw the NZ nation bird a few times too. Sorry, bad joke. At the end of the trek we realised we still had a 12 mile walk back to our villa down the coastal road, which on any other day would have been stunning and very enjoyable but we were shattered so we hitched a lift back with a kind American couple. We'll be sure to pass on the kindness to a hitch hiker in the future.

At the end of the coastal walk - nackered!

We had 2 nights there and then drove up to the Abel Tazmin national park in the north west. This wasn't our original plan, we were going to go to Hanmer Springs, but we had to drive 150 kilometres all the way to a town near there just to get to an ATM, so we checked this place out and a good job we did too as it was gorgeous. We treated ourselves to a holiday cottage which we bargained down to 70 NZ dollars which wasn't much more than staying in a backpackers hotel. The cottage was just a dream and came complete with a shiny black Labrador dog named Max who was our personal vacuum cleaner. The next day we went on 7 hour coastal walk which was again beautiful. The beaches were as good as Thailand's beaches but just totally unspoit with it being a protected area. I've just thought about something - yes my head hurts now - The next few travelpods from NZ are going to be pretty boring for anyone that reads them at home as it's all going to be 'went on a walk today, dead nice, beautiful, stunning, gorgeous, blah blah blah', so I apologise now if it gets tedious and sickly! All the adventure will start when our darling mothers get here in 2 weeks and we do such things as helicoptor rides over glaciers etc. . !!

Beach at Abel Tazmin

We did finally get to Hanmer Springs and had a dip in the smelly sulphur pools. We were also given complimentary mountain bikes for the 2 days that we were at the camping park (we stayed in a cabin) and cycled around the alpine roads to and from the town. It was a bit like Centre Parks but with mountains soaring above the trees and hot vocanic springs and people speaking kiwi, getting their vowels all muddled up and saying things like dick instead of deck etc. . so not really like centre parks at all, just similar trees.

Then we slowly made our way to Picton - staying at Blenhiem a couple of nights on the way and going to the Montana winery for a bit of plonk education - to get our ferry across the water to the north island and here we are in Wellington, where we have just sat and watched trashy sky TV, played free pool in the bar of our huge backpckers complex and now updating travelpod. Bloody hell that was a long sentence, I'm sure the grammer police will be on my case for that one.

Coastal walk in Abel Tazmen 2

So off we go to Auckland tomorrow and then on the Raratonga in the cook islands for 12 days, then back to Auckland to meet our mummys!!!

See you soon mum and mum-in-law! Don't forget to bring my Hula Hoop crisps! xxxxx

Max at our sweet cottage in Abel Tazmen

On our river trekking in Punakaiki

on our trek in Punakaiki

On the road from Christchurch

Pancake rocks

Punakaiki coast

seals

The coast line at Punakaiki

The coastal walk in Abel Tazmen

The little bird that likes ash

the little bird that likes fag ash again

V funny notice to guests in guest house in Loas!